Category: Art

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Music of My Muses

Since we're on the subject of Philip Glass…

Many years ago I put this CD on one afternoon and as this particular track from the disc was reaching its crescendo, I was moved to begin a painting. I was lucky in that I had a blank canvas available and almost before I knew what was happening I was on my feet and sketching. After a years-long absence, the Muses had returned—in force—and they weren't taking no for a response.

This is the result:

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Body of Work

I used to paint. A lot.

My earliest recollection of putting a brush to canvas was in high school, although it wasn't until years later that I began to do it with any sort of seriousness. Like with so many other things in my life, the arrival of Star Wars is what lit the flame. A lot of my sci-fi work also served as illustration/inspiration for that never-completed always-in-progress novel I started in my 20s.

After my move to San Francisco in the mid 80s, I was surrounded by all sorts of new…ahem… "inspiration" that prompted not only new subject matter but a completely new style altogether.

My last work was the portrait of Ben from ten years ago.

For some reason the Muses have sequestered themselves out of sight after that was completed, but as I've written before I'm not too worried about their absence as I've had long dry spells before, only to have them broken with a tsunami of new work. Maybe this coming year will bring that tsunami, because I'm tired of friends saying, "You're so good! Why aren't you painting?" and I have to explain that it's not just a matter of sitting down and having inspiration magically appear.

So here, with apologies for the low quality of some of the photos (and to be honest, some of the actual paintings themselves) for the first time ever, my (nearly entire) body of work. You'll notice some common themes repeating…

Once Upon a Time (1977)
Not Even Death Shall Part Us (1978)
The Hitchhiker (1978)
City By The Sea (1979)
Flashback (1979) – This was done as a gift for a friend who loved "Not Even Death Shall Part Us"
On The Beach (1979)
Cast Out (1980)
Olyxas Rising (1981).
Kiss (1980)
(The Pilitian Requested) A Room With A View (1981)
Zarok (Returning Home) (1981)
Olyxas Rising II (1984)
Chariots of the Gods (1986) – This came to me in a meditation one afternoon
Self Portrait (1986) – My first venture into the new style. I had a long way to go.
Patrick (1986)
Is It Love? (1987)
Leatherman (1987) – This was the first painting I sold.
Untitled (1988)
Dreams (1987)
Attitude (1987)
Michael (1988) – There's a long story behind this one.
Trevor (1988)
Kenny (1989)
Dennis (1989)
Parade (1991)
Tom (1992)
Giovanni (2000)
Chris (2001)
Dan Futterman (2001)
Knows His Place (2001)
Coley and Bastian (2003)
Miss KC Dare (2003)
Yuri (2003)
Steve (2004)
Joe (2004)
Bruno (2006)
Ben (2008)

There are maybe a half dozen others done over the years that I never got photographs of because they were early works and given away.

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I Used to Sketch

While searching for the photo of my painting Not Even Death Shall Part Us for the previous post, I ran across a bunch of other stuff.

Okay, I know they're not fine art, but at the time (I was 20 or so) I was very happy with how they turned out; now doubly-so because I know I didn't lay anything out first. I just grabbed a pen and started drawing.

Artistic ability may indeed be a gift, but I know this much: if you don't use it, it deteriorates over time. Take this from a guy who really hasn't produced any art in over ten years and is now almost terrified at the thought of drawing anything.

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Blast From The Past

Summer 1977: "Star Wars" summer. Seemed like everyone and their brother was attempting to cash in on the phenomenon that was Star Wars, including Burger King.

I bought this set of four posters as they came available at the fast food chain, hoping to one day get them framed. I'd completely forgotten about them until I ran across these images online. As it turns out, forty years later they're still not framed, languishing in a cardboard shipping tube in the bedroom closet—along with probably a dozen other posters I'd hoped to get framed "someday."

Considering it costs upward of a hundred dollars to get a simple black frame and mount for art of this size (with a 40% discount coupon!) at Michaels these days, it's still not going to happen any time soon.

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Indeed

"Every so often, an astronomical artist gets lucky." ~Don Dixon

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Such a Buzzkill

I hate to burst your bubble, but while this is very pretty, in real life it wouldn't look anything like this.

First off, assuming this is supposed to be the Pleiades (based on the shape of the "beam ship"), you can't get close enough to the cluster for it to fill the sky to the degree shown in the artwork above and retain the same configuration it does when viewed from earth. In order for it to retain the same shape as seen from Earth, you'd have to be no closer than approximately 40 light years out from the nearest star in the cluster and at that distance it would appear only about half the size shown here. Any closer, and the relative positions of the stars start to shift so dramatically that the cluster quickly loses it's "tiny dipper" shape altogether.

Secondly, even with the stars of the Pleiades being extremely bright blue-white giants hundreds of time more luminous than our sun, at 40 light years out they still wouldn't cast shadows; they'd only be as bright as the brightest stars in Earth's night sky.  Hell…even if you're standing on a hypothetical planet orbiting one of the stars in the cluster, the brightest stars of the rest of the cluster would still be outshone by Venus in Earth's sky (currently seen in the west after sundown—go outside and take a look!) by an order of magnitude. Yeah, pretty, but they wouldn't cast shadows.

So science kills fantasy again. Almost as disappointing as when I learned that even if you're close to stellar nebulae you still wouldn't see the colors captured in those amazing shots from Hubble. (Another discussion for another time.)

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Artists Strike Back

Thankfully Herr Trump will not get anywhere near the White House, so his proposal for an unbuildable wall (of any color) will never come to fruition.

Via Dezeen:

Trump's Mexican Border Wall Envisioned As Barragán-Inspired Pink Barrier

Mexican firm Estudio 3.14 has visualised the "gorgeous perversity" of US presidential candidate Donald Trump's plan to build a wall along the countries' border.

In response to the controversial proposal, a group of interns at the Guadalajara-based studio came up with a conceptual design that would celebrate Mexico's architectural heritage.

The giant solid barrier would run 1,954 miles (3,145 kilometres) uninterrupted from the Pacific coast to the Gulf of Mexico, and be painted bright pink in the spirit of the 20th-century buildings by Pritzker Prize-winning Mexican architect Luis Barragán.

"Because the wall has to be beautiful, it has been inspired in by Luis Barragán's pink walls that are emblematic of Mexico," said the studio. "It also takes advantage of the tradition in architecture of megalomaniac wall building."

Republican candidate Trump announced his idea to build a wall along the US-Mexico border early in his campaign, as his solution to keeping illegal Mexican immigrants out of America.

The team suggests that the wall could employ up to six million personnel. It could also incorporate shopping centre straddling its width, and a viewpoint from which US citizens could climb up and look down onto the other side.